‘I didn’t know. Well, actually, I had heard she was taking a tour group to Pinara that day, but I was just looking at the tomb because it’s one of the few there that’s accessible.’
‘I do not understand. When you see Nita, she is dead?’
‘Yes. Strangled by the lanyard of her ID card.’
‘That is how she was killed, yes. But you don’t see Barney?’
‘No. What’s more, I didn’t see his Range Rover in the car park.’
‘There are other places to park, many ways to get into the Pinara site.’
‘When Jude and I got back to the tomb that afternoon, it was empty. No sign that Nita had ever been there. Did you bring her body back?’
‘No.’
‘Then who did?’
‘Barney, I suppose. He is murderer, needs to hide body.’
‘And where do you think he might have hidden it?’
Erkan shrugged. ‘There are many old quarries and cliffs and bays. Here is not a difficult place to hide a body. I will find Nita’s body. More important, though, first I will find Barney and kill him.’
‘Don’t you think,’ suggested Carole, ‘it might make more sense to call in the police?’
‘No. No need for police. This is personal matter. Barney shame me by having affair with my wife. She tell me is all over. Then I discover she has set up to meet him again. That is why I must kill him. No one treat a Turkish man like he treat me and get away with it.’
‘So first you wanted to kill him for having an affair with your wife. Then you want to kill him for killing your wife.’
‘Yes.’
‘But you must see the two cases are different. Adultery is morally wrong, a sin, perhaps, but murder is definitely a crime. Why not get your revenge on Barney by going to the police and—?’
‘No, it is personal revenge. I will kill him!’
‘You’ll have to find him first,’ said Jude.
‘I will find him. He walked away from here. He is on foot; he has not got a car. Someone in Kayaköy will have seen him.’
‘But if you do kill him, you’ll go to prison for a long time.’
‘I do not care. I will have had my revenge.’
‘One thing I don’t understand …’ said Carole. ‘After you had found your wife’s body, did you go looking for Barney at Pinara?’
‘I look a little. But then I reckon he has come back to Kayaköy. I come back to look for him here.’
‘Just leaving Nita’s body in the tomb?’
‘Yes. I am angry. I am furious. I am not thinking straight.’
‘So you have no proof that Barney removed the body?’
‘I don’t need proof. It must be him. Who else knows the body is there?’
Which, Carole and Jude reflected, was a very good question.
Erkan stood up. ‘Now I will go and find him.’ But the sudden movement was too much. He swayed and stumbled to the ground.
Jude was quickly by his side. ‘It’s your head wound. You must get it seen to.’
‘No, I have to …’ But the sentence was mumbled away.
‘We must call you an ambulance.’
‘No, I can’t …’ His words were slurring now.
‘Tell us what number we call for an ambulance,’ said Carole.
Erkan didn’t resist any more, but just managed to get out the numbers.
Carole rang through. To her surprise, the call was answered by someone who spoke good English. She was told that the ambulance would be there within half an hour.
Then Erkan passed out. They took the gun and, unable to think of anywhere else, they put it in the glove compartment of their car.
When the ambulance arrived, neither the driver nor his fellow paramedic spoke English, so Carole and Jude were not required to provide any explanations about why they were at Tulip Cottage. The assumption was presumably made that they were renting it.
Erkan stirred a little when he was stretchered to the ambulance. Jude did not think his injury was life-threatening, probably just a case of concussion. But he certainly did need professional attention.
The women gave their mobile numbers to the ambulance men and mimed that they would like to be kept informed of the patient’s progress. Whether they were understood or not, they didn’t know.
TWENTY-SIX
They didn’t know what to do, but they knew they had to do something. Whatever crimes Barney Willingdon might have committed, he certainly did not deserve to die. And, though Carole’s attitude was not so forgiving, Jude still retained a strong affection for him. Somehow they had to save him from a scuba diving instructor with a gun. Because, although Erkan was currently hors de combat, they both knew that they had not heard the last of him. He still wanted to have his revenge.
The minute they were back in the car, Jude tried ringing Barney on his mobile, but she had exactly the same response as before. Wherever he was, he wasn’t taking calls.
As they turned off the main road up towards Morning Glory, Carole said, ‘I feel so isolated. We have no network here. We don’t know anyone. If we did want to contact the police, I really wouldn’t know how to set about it.’
‘Well, we do have one contact …’
‘Who?’
‘Our friendly – perhaps over-friendly – expatriate neighbour.’
Carole shuddered. ‘Travers Hughes-Swann.’
‘He does speak English. And he seems to know everything that goes on in Kayaköy. It’s worth asking.’
So rather than continuing to Morning Glory, the car turned off towards Brighton House. The main building looked more like a cowshed than ever, and the owner’s stone garden features didn’t look any better than they had on the women’s previous visit.
Travers himself was tending a barbecue which he appeared to have just lit. He’d apparently taken a break in his gardening because there were piles of culled weeds on the footpath. He was wearing his uniform of shorts, socks and sandals, and his head looked more like a pickled walnut than ever.
But he was very pleased at what he saw arriving. ‘Two lovely ladies. To what do I owe my good fortune?’
‘We just wondered if you could help us out?’ said Jude. ‘You know, with your local knowledge?’
‘Always happy to oblige, particularly when the request comes from personages of such pulchritude.’ He indicated the barbecue. ‘Just preparing supper for myself and “Her Indoors”.’
‘Well, if we’re delaying you, please don’t—’
‘No, no. Barbecue takes a while to heat up. I’m in no hurry.’ He gestured to the chairs in his ‘suntrap’ (though at that time of day his travesty of a Lycian tomb was in the shade) and all three of them sat down.
‘Could I offer you a cup of tea or—?’
Remembering the chipped cups of their previous visit, both women politely demurred.
‘So what can I do you for?’ he said with a kind of pub bore’s heartiness.
‘Well, look, it’s all rather complicated,’ Carole began. ‘It’s about Barney.’
‘Surprise, surprise.’
‘Why do you say that?’
Travers shrugged. ‘It’s not like you two have a lot of other contacts out here, is it? And Barney’s a kind of larger-than-life figure who attracts attention wherever he goes.’
‘Yes,’ Jude agreed. ‘Which makes it rather strange that we haven’t been able to contact him for the last couple of days.’
‘He’s got business interests in other parts of Turkey. He may be away from Kayaköy for a few days.’
‘But he isn’t answering his mobile.’
‘Ah. Well, yes, that might be rather out of character. So what do you think might have happened to him?’
Carole and Jude exchanged covert looks, both trying to work out how much they should tell Travers. ‘The fact is, we do know where he’s just been,’ Carole began cautiously.